I have been quietly restraining myself for the last few weeks from screaming and yelling at the multitude out there. But I am losing my patience. First, there was the ruling by the Obama Administration that all health insurance plans had to offer and cover for women’s’ contraceptives. The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church pleaded for exemption in their institutions, which included hospitals and schools run by their religious orders. When this was rejected, the religious powers-that-be came rallying to the media, pontificating and decrying the “forced violation of their religious consciences,” and they vowed to fight this to the very end! I kept rolling my eyes and shaking my head. How dare these religious leaders throw their weight around and impose their beliefs under the banner of their conscience!

And then came the news that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, which for the longest time was THE EPITOME of women’s’ rights advocacy, was terminating their longtime support and partnership with Planned Parenthood for such a lame excuse that they would not be funding any organization that was under investigation. I could not help but wonder if the Komen foundation was also planning to terminate their support of Penn State since it has been embroiled in the mess resulting from formerly esteemed football coach Joe Paterno’s acts of omission over child molestation. What it really was: the Komen foundation bowing to extreme religious right-wing politics pressure — the very group of people who still have this antiquated notion that they can still control women’s lives by controlling when and what goes on between their legs. What’s more disgusting: the women belonging to these groups who parrot out what they have been brainwashed since childhood as sound doctrine. Pathetic! Mayor Bloomberg of New York who is a known Planned Parenthood supporter, said it so succinctly in an interview: “Politics has no place in health care.” Well, neither should any religious group!

The last straw for me was the downright ultimate “BASTOS!” (look up in google translate. All 33 meanings collectively are appropriate!) act by none other than Rush Limbaugh when he denigrated and humiliated Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke 53 times over three days on his radio show. Jeff Lord, former Reagan White House political director and contributing editor for the American Spectator, had the nerve to defend Limbaugh’s actions as his first amendment rights. Sure, everyone is entitled to their opinion. But does everyone have a well-publicized radio talk show with a wide audience, many of whom will not likely bother to ensure that all the twists and turns his rhetoric takes, does indeed check out to be true or actually did happen? I invite you to listen to Michael Krasny’s Forum episode of different people weighing in on his actions, on KQED.

I heard on the news that a lot of advertisers have withdrawn their accounts from Mr. Limbaugh’s show. But you know that, if this persists and escalates, Mr. Limbaugh, who has enriched himself over the years spewing hate and deceit on the airwaves, married several times, belittles women, people of color, and LGBTs, will do what every shrewd businessman would do: Save himself. Just watch.

Linda Greenhouse, contributor to NY Times “The Opinion Pages,” wrote a piece about comparing Ms. Fluke to the Lilly Ledbetter case, in “Accidental Heroines:”

“We need a serious conversation about how women live their lives and how their ability to control their fertility contributes to the welfare of American families.”

There is so much polarity in our world these days. I suspect that a lot of these restrictive and exclusionary groups are borne from fear. Fear of the unknown. Ignorance of other cultures. Fear of change. That my life is better than yours. My way is better than yours. Why do people have to exclude, reject, destroy, alienate what is different? We are a land of many cultures, ethnicities, religions. We can coexist peacefully and amicably. But certain things are basic and not negotiable and it transcends the differences in culture, religion, color, race, ethnicity: Women, people of color, gays and lesbians are human beings first and foremost. They are people with “inalienable rights,” “are equal,” and have the right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Therefore:

Health Care is a human right. It should be available to all who are citizens of this country. We are one of the very few developed countries without universal health care for its citizens.

Women have the right to control their bodily functions. This includes control of whether they want to have children or not, when they want to or if they want to.

Politics and Religion do not and should not have any place in Health Care.

Capitalists should not have control over Health Care.

Religious groups do not and should not have any place in government. The law should serve our human-ness, not our religious affiliations.

Freedom of Speech, First Amendment Rights are a freedom the founders of this country have espoused and held sacred. But we all know that Freedom alone is frivolous, reckless, and risky, without its counterparts Responsibility and Respect. (There seems to be an alarming shortage of the latter two.)

9 Responses to I Can’t Keep Quiet About This Anymore!

I applaud your courage. Being an estranged Catholic (for reasons having to do with the cover-up of pedophilia, and the exclusion of women in leadership, among others) and living here in the ultra conservative, highly Catholic city of Cincinnati, I try to keep my silence. Too many family members and close friends on the other side of many of these issues. (Makes you wonder what kind of friends I keep. I try not to let isolated issues determine the goodness of a person.)

Anyway. Your thoughts are refreshing. I saw Ms. Fluke on a news show and was oh so impressed.

Rush Limbaugh is an idiot. I never give anything he says any time in my conscious.

Pro-lifers make the Hippa laws seem ridiculous. Either what is going on inside our own body is private, or it isn’t. This has to apply equally to everyone.

Personally, I’ve wavered back and forth over the abortion issue for much of my life. This is my final consensus, as of right now: I believe life is valuable and sacred and should be protected. In a perfect world, there would be no abortion. I understand it is not a perfect world. I have no right to tell someone else what to do with their body. It’s a matter of privacy. And if men were the child-bearers, it would never have been an issue.

Kudos to you for your convictions. I grew up in a hypocritical ultra-religious society and I’m just relieved not to be living there anymore. Things are changing there since I left almost 30 years ago, I hear, but not fast enough for me. Yes, I would imagine you are surrounded by ultra-conservatives. It’s worse when they are a proselytizing bunch, who might try to “save you.”

Like you, I became even more disillusioned when the church shoved the pedophile issues under their collective rugs years ago. What an irony! It makes their promotion of life a sham. I’m sure it would be different if women sat in the Vatican to weigh in on these matters and vote on policy.

Abortion is tough for many people. I don’t condone the indiscriminate practice for contraceptive reasons. I do have arguments on when life begins or the pronouncements on theoretical risks or possibilities of this or that as used for reasons to ban oral and other forms of contraceptives, early terminations for medical reasons. I have a lot of problems with “life at all costs” premise, for the unborn fetus, as well as for the elderly to infirm. The latter I discussed in an earlier blog. For me it’s us playing god.

Yes, it would be different if men carried the burden of pregnancy and child rearing more.

You are awesome. This is a solid, resounding post. Highly valuable, necessary to be outed – all of it.

The WHOLE thing was news to me, though I had heard of the ultra sound rape proposal. I didn’t know it has become legislation now, though (did I read that wrong?). It is excellent Limbaugh has had advertisers pull out. I wish more of that and worse to him. That poor uni student, my gosh. All the links you provide – just excellent.

YES, all of these things are bothering me a great deal. I do not live in the US but, as we are finding in the UK, the pervasive discourse on women’s rights in the US always makes its way to us eventually. We already have a similar band of misogynists trying to implement several of the same policy and legislative changes here. I’m getting the impression that you are not so conservative in Canada re. women’s rights. Is that the case?